Chapter 9

“We had been lovers for nearly five years, and I didn’t know how to go on without him. I cried to the gods, and I begged not to be separated from him. I promised everything that I had to stay with him forever, but I thought that would mean death. That one of Antony’s men would sneak up on me and finish off what Theo’s death had started.”

“It didn’t happen.”

“No.” His chuckle rasped across her senses. “I fell asleep with prayers on my lips and his body in my arms. When I woke up, his body was gone and all I had was that sword.” Quin looked to the door again. “That beautiful, precious sword.”

* * *

The light bored through his closed eyelids, merciless and blinding. For an eternity, Quintus believed he was dead. Nothing mortal could be so encompassing, so brilliant, searing through flesh like it was wax melting beneath the high yellow sun. It would leave him misshapen and then formless, ready to join Theo wherever he might be.